Livedoor boss keeps on fighting

Takafumi Horie remains defiant over his role in the Livedoor scandal

Disgraced Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi Horie is continuing to fight back in the wake of a fraud conviction.

After criticising his own two and half year jail sentence last week, Mr Horie has spoken out in favour of another defendant in the Livedoor case.

Yoshiaki Murakami, a controversial fund manager, is accused of profiting from insider information from Mr Horie.

Mr Horie denied that Mr Murakami could have known about Livedoor's future investment plans during 2004.

Hidden losses

Mr Murakami faces charges that he bought 1.9 million shares in Nippon Broadcasting in the knowledge that Livedoor intended to buy a large stake in the business.

He subsequently sold the shares for a profit of 3bn yen ($25m; £13m) and prosecutors allege that this gain was based on contravening insider trading rules.

The Livedoor scandal forced the Tokyo stock market to close when news of the investigation into the company sparked a massive share sell-off in 2006.

Mr Horie was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of falsifying the company's accounts and misleading investors. He was accused of falsely reporting a pre-tax profit of 5bn yen for the year to September 2004 to hide actual losses of 310m yen.

Do the Japanese public view Mr Horie as an innocent victim?

He is appealing against his conviction and is free on bail of 500m yen. Mr Horie continues to deny all the charges and says that the loss of his company and income is punishment enough.

Chief Judge Toshiyuki Kosaka found that Mr Horie had controlled a network of decoy investment funds "established for the purpose of evading the law".

Four more top Livedoor executives have been charged and will hear the Tokyo District Court's verdict on them later this week.

Mr Horie's prison sentence has been contrasted with the comparatively lenient treatment meted out to Nikko Cordial, Japan's third biggest share trader.

Nikko Cordial has admitted to inflating profits, and been fined. But no charges have been brought against its executives.